Rep. Connelly to House members: USPS is not a piggy bank!

In a letter to House of Representative Colleagues, Congressman Gerald E. Connolly (VA-11) stressed: The United States Postal Service is Not a Piggy Bank! Oppose Reckless Efforts to Hold the Highway Trust Fund Hostage in Exchange for Eliminating Saturday Mail Delivery.

When addressing a proposal to leverage Highway Trust Fund funding against the elimination of Saturday mail delivery, Representative Connolly writes in part…

This non-germane, anti-Postal provision would undermine a trillion dollar American mailing industry that supports more than 8 million private sector jobs and represents 7 percent of our Nation’s Gross Domestic Product. The loss of jobs resulting from eliminating Saturday mail delivery would not be limited to the private sector, as approximately 80,000 full-time and part-time middle-class postal workers, including rural letter carriers, would find themselves out of work. Such a drastic loss of jobs would not only harm our economy, but also offset any deficit reduction, since the tens of thousands of newly unemployed middle-class families would suddenly find themselves in desperate need of financial assistance.Eliminating Saturday mail delivery would also be inequitable. Degrading the universal service standard would disproportionally impact millions of elderly Americans whose way of life continues to rely on paper documents, while hurting small businesses that rely on the Postal Service to deliver time-sensitive legal forms. Since many rural communities lack access to quality, affordable internet service, these closures would effectively isolate Americans living in low density regions, forcing them to endure costly, prolonged deliveries, to pay bills or receive income.

4 thoughts on “Rep. Connelly to House members: USPS is not a piggy bank!”

• The United States Postal Service is a multibillion DOLLAR quasi government agency that does not operate on tax dollars and takes in $67.3 billion in revenue.
• The USPS is one of the largest employers of VETERANS.
• The USPS processed 22.6 billion pieces of 1st Class Mail last year, plus billions more of Standard, Priority, Parcels and Periodicals.
• In a typical DAY We DELIVER 523 million mails pieces and pick up more than 727,000 packages.
• USPS.com receives 1 million visitors each day.
• In ONE DAY 3.2 million customers visit our Sales and Service Counters around our Country.
• Despite understaffing at Postal counters, the average Wait Time in Line is 2.34 minutes.
• As a “federal agency” in America, the USPS is one of the most efficient and highly trusted.
• Postal Workers are “sworn” Public civil servants who take an oath to protect the mail and must undergo a background check.
• The US Postal Service isn’t broke. The Claimed losses are due to unreasonable 2006 Pre-funding Law. In fact, USPS enjoyed an operating surplus of $765 million in the first quarter of 2014 and $600 million in the last quarter of 2013.
• Accounting error in overfunding CSRS and FERS $50-$75 billion
1. $75 billion surplus found by the Hay Group (done for USPS Office of Inspector General)
2. $50-55 billion found by the Segal Company (for Postal Regulatory Commission)

• All Americans need to stand together against Corporate Greed and fight to GROW the middle class.

• The United States Postal Service is a multibillion DOLLAR quasi government agency that does not operate on tax dollars and takes in $67.3 billion in revenue.
• The USPS is one of the largest employers of VETERANS.
The US Postal Service isn’t broke. The Claimed losses are due to unreasonable 2006 Pre-funding Law. In fact, USPS enjoyed an operating surplus of $765 million in the first quarter of 2014 and $600 million in the last quarter of 2013.
• Accounting error in overfunding CSRS and FERS $50-$75 billion
1. $75 billion surplus found by the Hay Group (done for USPS Office of Inspector General)
2. $50-55 billion found by the Segal Company (for Postal Regulatory Commission)
• The USPS processed 22.6 billion pieces of 1st Class Mail last year, plus billions more of Standard, Priority, Parcels and Periodicals.
• In a typical DAY We DELIVER 523 million mails pieces and pick up more than 727,000 packages.
• USPS.com receives 1 million visitors each day.
• In ONE DAY 3.2 million customers visit our Sales and Service Counters around our Country.
• Despite understaffing at Postal counters, the average Wait Time in Line is 2.34 minutes.
• As a “federal agency” in America, the USPS is one of the most efficient and highly trusted.
• Postal Workers are “sworn” Public civil servants who take an oath to protect the mail and must undergo a background check.

• Congress needs to quit using the USPS as a cash cow. All Americans need to stand together against Corporate Greed and fight to GROW the middle class.